The exploration of the phenomenology of sadness in patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is relevant to the understanding of the pathology and to its
treatment. BPD patients tend to experience distress intensely and frequently, and inefficient attempts at regulating this emotional experience is known to be associated with symptoms, such as suicidal or parasuicidal gestures (Bland, Williams, Scharer, & Manning, 2004; Brown, Williams, & Collins, 2007; Oldham, 2006; Paris, 2002). The
literature on psychological suffering in BPD reveals an apparent contradiction: these patients experience a large amount of suffering, but they appear to not experience
sadness. The nature of their suffering seems to be distinct from sadness, and has yet to be more fully explored empirically and theoretically. The present thesis aims at
exploring the phenomenology of sadness in BPD. To our knowledge, no research has specifically attempted to investigate this particular topic, but some etiological pathways for understanding BPD suffering have been explored: temperament, mental functioning,
depression, personality organization and traumatic events.
The first study proposes a theoretical and clinical investigation of the concept of sadness and defines it in opposition to distress. This distinction between sadness and
distress focuses on phenomenological and metapsychological perspectives, and is in line with evolutionary theories of emotion and psychoanalytic formulations on mental functioning and object relationships. A case study illustrates this investigation.
The second study aims at exploring the phenomenology of sadness through an investigation of the major themes that BPD participants talk about when they are asked
to recall episodes of sadness. Seven individuals with a diagnosis of BPD on the SCID-II (First, Gibbon, Spitzer, & Williams, 1997) participated in a semi-structured interview.
Following the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis principles (Smith, 1996), a thematic analysis of 14 transcripts was performed by two doctoral students in order to outline the representation of sadness of BPD participants. Five themes were found: 1) aggression, 2) relationship broken off by the other, 3) undifferentiated negative affect, 4) self being defective, and 5) overwhelming experience. The results suggest that ‘sadness’ in those episodes is not associated with a representation of loss, but with a state of being ‘damaged’ by the aggression and/or the breaking off of the relationship inflicted by the other. This is a non-mentalized experience that the participants tend to regulate in the interpersonal field. This experience should not be conceptualized as sadness proper.
In conclusion, a new hypothesis emerges: the experience of sadness for BPD patients is not really sadness, but a form of interpersonally-focused distress. This emotional experience is characterized by a deficit in mental functioning and by a
particular personality organization. Clinical and theoretical implications are discussed.